Yaan Tiersen: The Design of Amélie

It was the first lecture of the quarter in Introduction to Design. As I walk down the stairs of the lecture hall of Haring, I notice students seated looking at the projector screen. I take a seat and join my fellow design students by looking at the screen as well. I couldn't believe my eyes. Professor Housefield is showing Amélie on the first day of class.

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I have only watched Amélie once in my lifetime, at a free screening of the movie at Dolores Park in San Francisco. I was with my extended family sitting on the grass in front of the projector screen. As a public showing of Amélie, hundreds of San Franciscans surrounded me staring at the same screen. It was hard to hear the dialogue between Amélie and the various characters with this many people conversing around you. Aside from hearing people's opinions on the San Francisco Giants, one thing about Amélie was the movie's music.

Going back to the first day of Introduction to Design, Professor Housefield asked us to take notice of the design of the first three minutes of the film Amélie. The design of these three minutes - contrasting colors of red and green, the time lapsing of the various scenes, its subtle tones - were used to reveal  content of the rest of the film. Like my first experience of watching Amélie, what stood out to me the most during these first three minutes was its music. The song playing within these first three minutes is titled "Comptine D'un Autre Eté, L'aprés-Midi." Yann Tiersen, who composed this song, also produced the rest of the soundtrack of Amélie. Mainly composed of piano and accordion, the music of Amélie gives the overall design of the movie an somber, yet playful, tone, much like Amélie's character.